Mikron aim to make theatre for everyone, so it’s apt that the company’s commemoration of the suffragette movement highlights the role and the sacrifices of ordinary working women. Vashti MacLachlan’s play follows Sylvia, the lesser-known and in many ways most radical Pankhurst. We see her tireless petitioning and witness the growing rift between Sylvia and her sister Christabel. But most interestingly, MacLachlan dramatises the contribution of East Enders whom Sylvia recruited to the cause.
This is no triumphant centenary celebration. After all, as one of the performers wryly notes, only some women got the vote in 1918. MacLachlan nicely captures the ambivalence of this victory, along with the divisions that ruptured both a movement and a family. Class divides also ripple through the drama, which often points out the gulf between the privileged Pankhursts and the poor working women who gave everything to the campaign. There’s plenty of room for complexity here.
That intricacy extends to the storytelling, which teeters between satire and history. All the roles, from suffragettes to dockers and puffed-up politicians, are shared among an energetic quartet of actor-musicians, who also narrate the action. But this confuses the story and lets the piece down. Neither MacLachlan nor director Jonny Kelly can seem to decide whether these clowning commentators are lampooning anti-suffrage attitudes, cheering on the campaigners, or simply recounting events.
The result is bewildering tonal inconsistency. The same goes for Kieran Buckeridge’s songs, which set tales of force-feeding to jaunty tunes, awkwardly combining parody and sincerity. Mikron’s production has a makeshift charm, but muddies an otherwise compelling story.
- At Grimesthorpe Allotments, Sheffield, 6 June. Details: 0114-273 7718. Then touring.
